BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Ten former communist states and Cyprus on Monday begin the long journey to full membership of the European Union. Foreign ministers from the 15-nation bloc start the process of enlargement with a mostly ceremonial meeting with their 11 counterparts before kicking off negotiations proper on Tuesday with the six candidate countries closest to membership - the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus. The five stragglers - Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Bulgaria - will be able to join the talks and could even overtake the favoured six later, but will first have to convince the EU that they can bring their economies, and in Slovakia`s case their political systems, up to scratch. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said today`s meeting was a watershed in European history. "Today we are starting the process of finally putting behind us the division of Europe into east and west which has scarred Europe for the last half of this century," he said, adding that once the accession talks were completed the EU would be "bigger, stronger and much more influential". Asked how soon new members may actually be on board, Cook said: "That depends entirely on what progress they make in preparing themselves. It need take no longer than that." However, once the ceremonies are over, the nitty-gritty work of coming into line with tens of thousands of pages of EU rules will start for the 11. "No candidate country today fulfils the accession criteria," said Francois Lamoureux, the French European Commission official who led the assessment of the candidates. "But six of them will probably fulfil them in 2002-2003." Nor has the bloc yet prepared itself for enlargement, with a need to reform its unwieldy institutions and rein in spending on agricultural policies. To help the candidates make the grade, the bloc has established "accession partnerships" with each candidate, laying down short and long-term goals, including doubling the money available under the bloc`s Phare programme to help take on EU legislation and train civil servants.